It’s too long since I last posted on this blog. Two months!

Somehow, the individual tiny steps don’t seem to merit a mention but, taken together, there’s a couple of strides’ worth of stuff to report.

The hog:

Having steamed the aft end of the hog, I took the hog to the loft floor, and marked it with all the reference lines I could think of: the station lines, where each mould will sit; the position of the centreboard slot; and the position of the timbers (ribs) that will be steamed in place once planking is completed.

It was now time to glue and screw the hog to the keel. With a series of blocks screwed to the strongback, the keel could be held perfectly straight; and some smaller scraps of wood were nailed onto the blocks so that the hog would be perfectly centred on the keel when butted up to them. Such careful preparation is essential because you cannot see pencil lines to judge accurate positioning when the glue is squeezing out. As our son James was told at Dartmouth Royal Navy College, ‘Prior preparation prevents piss poor performance!’

Sylvia and I did the glue up.

Once the glue had gone off, the blocks were removed and set up on the centreline of the strongback. With plywood ‘cheeks’ screwed in place, the keel and hog were firmly in place, and counterbored silicon-bronze screw fixings were fitted.

Transom knee:

The transom sits on the keel, and is held in place by the transom knee, which serves as a bracket. There are a number of ways to make this important knee: grown curved timber, lapped or bridle jointed pieces of wood or, as I chose, a laminated knee. The key is to have the grain matching or supporting the inner curve of the knee to give the necessary strength to this member of the boat’s centreline/backbone.

Holes were then drilled in the knee (and then through the deadwood and keel), and the knee was glued onto the hog with Semparoc 60 polyurethane glue. Having made some more 5mm copper nails, the knee was then nailed and roved, with Sylvia’s assistance.

Stem fixing:

With the hog glued and screwed, it was also time to fix the stem to the keel.

Sylvia and I then roved the copper nails that I had made, finishing the stem fixing.

Finally, the transom:

I mentioned the transom in my last post. This has been made from three pieces of Khaya mahogany, jointed together with 3mm marine plywood splines. These splines bridge the butt-jointed planks, running in grooves that I routed with a power router. Despite my apprehension that the router would pull off line, this step went very well, and a quick swipe with a Record plough plane finished the job nicely.

With the epoxy glue cleaned up, it was time to make my transom Mylar template from the lines of the transom expansion on my loft floor. (The transom expansion is the process of stretching the ‘height’ dimension of the transom, in order to account for the fact that it is raked, not plumb/vertical.)

Once the transom had been cut to shape, it was put in place, with a plywood jig positioned to hold the keel in place.

With the transom fitting nicely, I turned my attention to carving the boat’s name.

An aside:

While enjoying a break away in Bradford on Avon, I managed to finish a little project for my woodturning mentor and friend. I am delighted to hear from Richard that this sign has drawn in the punters to his recent craft stall events. Perhaps I should have asked for a percentage of the resulting increased sales!! (Just joking, Richard.)